Comestibles such as meat, fish, poultry etc. are commonly batter coated, breaded and then cooked by pan frying or deep fat frying. This develops into a coating which is crispy and tasty, and has a uniform brown color. However, associated with such frying of comestibles is the undesirable messiness, expense and danger of frying as well as the dietary aspects of fried foods which are considered undesirable by some. A further drawback of fryiing is that the fried comestible coating loses its crispness and hence its consumer appeal within a relatively short time after frying.
Thus it becomes desirable to prepare comestibles with the taste, texture and appearance of fried comestibles without the undesirable characteristics of frying.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,512 by Mancuso et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,827 by Lee et al. both prepare a baked comestible with a fried texture and appearance. The Mancuso et al. patent does this by providing a dye system which changes color during cooking, while the Lee et al. patent provides a unique batter and dry mix coating. While both these systems are effective the Mancuso et al. patent has the drawback in that it requires a dye, while the Lee et al. patent has the drawback in that it requires a manufacturer to package the product in two separate pouches (i.e., one which contains ingredients for the batter and the other for the dry mix coating), and requires relatively complicated consumer preparation.